Stop scratching and start reading, but not all the posts I wrote since September 2009. There are more than 500!

Donna wrote a comment and she finally had the key to find more about Our Ancestors and her ancestors.

If Odna Lagasse is on this picture, and I am sure she is…

then I think this is also Odna Lagasse, the daughter of Dennis Lagasse III and Amanda Ménard. She is seen here on this picture with her brother Levi Napoleon Lagasse, last row on the left and her sister Ida Lagasse, last row on the right…

Ida always has a big smile. One day some of her descendants will find her on the Internet. It’s just a matter of time.

Who could be sitting beside Odna on the right of the picture?

I was really scratching my head before Donna’s comment because I first thought that Odna was Bertha…

Odna’ husband was Frank Ritchie and he was the father of both William Ritchie and Robert Ritchie who both died in WWII?

William and Robert Ritchie

What do you think?

Is Frank Ritchie beside Odna Lagasse?

Looks like it doesn’t it?

Odna M. Ritchie was a Gold Star Mother, but you already know that.

Was Frank Ritchie a Gold Star Father?

I don’t think they gave medals for father losing two sons in WWII.

Footnote

Obituaries are a great source for finding relatives even if there are errors sometimes. This is why you have to double and triple check every information.

As for Odna Lagasse born on October 18, 1893, we now have precious pictures of her and maybe pictures of her husband Frank Ritchie.

Footnote to the footnote

If you are asking yourself if I have found Frank Richie’s ancestors also…

I have found from another source that Mélodie Hogue’s husband is not named Joseph Orphire Levesseur, but Joseph Zephire Levasseur. I have attached the marriage act. Would please translate this for me? I think I see the father as Hippolyte Moreau. I see a former wife of Marie Beauregard. The mother could possibly be Rita Desser…

Anyway, I am sure you are much better at this and I, and I appreciate your help.

Thank you.

I wanted to take a break during this summer and come back only in September to talk about that picture that has been haunting me since 2009.

Since this was posted earlier this year, we have found the identify of the young woman on the picture. She’s Bertha’s sister Odna Lagasse.

START

Well the time has come…

Teresa had posted a comment this week after reading my post Out of Gas?

Good Evening,My name is Teresa Brooks Pease. I am a descendant of Bertha Lagasse Austin. My Grandmother is Elizabeth (Betty) Austin DeWick. I dont have very much information about the Austin/Lagasse and as my grandmother just passed December of 2012. I’m not sure I will be able to provide you with any futher information other than what my grandfather may have. Please feel free to contact me. I would love to learn more about my family history.

“Please feel free to contact me. I would love to learn more about my family history.”

I was all excited.

Now I should be able to get confirmation if Bertha Austin née Lagasse is really on this picture because Teresa wrote again.

And I thought that I had scared her away!

I also found out that Teresa and I are 2nd cousins twice removed which means we share this common ancestor

and this one…

Stanislas Lagacé 1842-1927

Stanislas Lagacé is her great-great-great-grandfather while he is my great-grandfather. That’s the twice removed thing. Her great-great-grandfather is Dennis Lagasse III, Bertha’s father.

He is this man under the hat with four of his five sons. Harry Lagasse is not on the picture.

Napoleon Levi, Harvey, Victor Philip, ? (a cousin?) and Joseph

Priceless picture isn’t for someone who has no pictures of their ancestors…

Dennis Lagasse III is my grandfather’s brother Léo Lagacé Senior. Dennis (his real given name is Stanislas) was born in 1864 and Leo in 1888. 24 years apart. Dennis died in 1922 and my grandfather died in 1964.

Priceless document…

That’s the clue that got me here writing this blog. I knew nothing about my grandfather’s ancestors back in 2007 when I got addicted to genealogy.

Getting back to Teresa who knows very little about her ancestors, she told me about her grandaunt Dorothy Austin and her granduncle William Austin who are still living. They are Bertha Lagasse’s children. They should be able to identify their mother on the picture, and they should have more pictures to share.

At least I hope so.

I just have a few notes on Bertha, and last month, while checking my family tree, I found her in the 1940 U.S. Census.

That’s a great place to start looking for clues when you know what you are looking for.

William Austin was an electrician and he was living at 235 Union Avenue in West Haven, Connecticut.

We don’t have pictures of these people in the censuses. Luckily for us we had Lionel Lagasse’s family album. He brought it with him when he visited his son Dennis last fall. Back in 2011 Dennis Lagasse did not know much about his roots. He found my blog or I found him on a genealogy forum, can’t recall…

In a split second he became Dennis Lagasse IV and he found all about his French-Canadian roots right up to André Mignier.

soldier of Carignan-Salière regiment

I think he was elated to find his virtual 2nd cousin once removed from Quebec.

This is a picture he first shared with me. I was all excited. I call it my Rosetta stone.

I knew who these people were.

His great-grandfather Dennis Lagasse III is seen her with his wife Amanda Ménard and their family. 11 children, 5 boys and 6 girls.

Last September Dennis sent me lots of new pictures with lots of people photographed… but Bertha was nowhere to be seen.

Anyway…

Since I had found everything on Bertha’s roots, I had focused my search on William Austin.

Start

It’s because of your ancestors like Bertha Lagasse seen here, first row on the left. Well I think she is Bertha Lagasse.

This picture was sent by Robin last year. It was part of more than 100 pictures she scanned even though she is not directly related to us.

She shares the same passion.

I had quickly identified Levi Napoleon, Ida, and perhaps Bertha Lagasse thanks to this other picture Dennis IV had sent me which is, in a way, a kind of Rosetta stone.

Dennis sent me last September a lot of new pictures with a lot of people photographed…

Levi Napoleon and Ida are seen on almost each one, but Bertha is not anywhere to be seen. Most of these people should be related to Dubés or Dubes as seen on U.S. censuses.

One day someone will write a comment like Judy did and the floogates will open wide.

End

Well the time has come…

Good Evening,My name is Teresa Brooks Pease. I am a descendant of Bertha Lagasse Austin. My Grandmother is Elizabeth (Betty) Austin DeWick. I dont have very much information about the Austin/Lagasse and as my grandmother just passed December of 2012. I’m not sure I will be able to provide you with any futher information other than what my grandfather may have. Please feel free to contact me. I would love to learn more about my family history.

This is a beautiful and touching comment from Susan… Deep from someone’s heart in Texas…

Hi Pierre,You are right, I am in Texas.Yesterday, I stopped at an estate sale and they had a box of old family pictures for sale. Some in frames and some without. I just wanted to cry that all those precious pictures and no family member was interested in them enough to try and find out who they were and their connections to past relatives.

This idea of a blog about genealogy just started with the story of someone I met through my other blog about genealogy. Her name was Doris.

Since that story was written in French, someone related to her down in Prairie Soileau, Louisiana, could not read it although Seeburn had French-Canadian roots. So I translated this post for him and put it on a new blog… this one.

We did not know who these sisters were back in 2009 when Sandy found me on Ancestry. So you see, you don’t have to read all that I have written on this blog.

Just Google in a name and try your luck like Linda Marie did.

Hello cousin Pierre,

So happy to meet you!

First of all, I do not know the Ancestry website and would love to be a part of it.

I stumbled across Uncle Harry’s and Aunt Freida (we called her Nana), by accident. I was searching for my cousin on Facebook and was taken to the Ancestry site. I began reading my Uncle Bill’s obituary, and the rest, they say is History. Wow, all the family photos!! I have only seen a few from my side of the family.

I called my Uncle to tell him about the site.

I would like to stay in touch with you and perhaps one day we will meet.

My grandfather was Peter Kaminski, married to Isabel Chagnon. Freida was his sister, who married Harry. Peter had a brother, John, married to Bonnie, and Joanie is the little girl in the photo with Freida, my mother and my Uncle Peter.